Between a Wok and a Dead Place (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781645060611)

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change.

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown-International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up--and why are the owners so reluctant to talk?

With each new discovery, Pepper finds herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls.

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century.

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Author: Leslie Budewitz
ISBN-10: 1645060616
ISBN-13: 9781645060611
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Language: English
Published: 07/18/2023
Pages: 236
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.19h x 5.43w x 0.87d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 06/01/2023 pg. 90